Field
This disclosure relates generally to Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ) memories, and more specifically, to sense path circuitry for MTJ memory sense amplifiers.
Related Art
Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ) memories are being considered to rival FLASH memories and other non-volatile memories. To be commercially practical, however, MTJ memories must have comparable memory density to current memory technologies, be scalable for future generations, operate at low voltages, have low power consumption, and have competitive read/write speeds.
Storing data is accomplished by passing current into an MTJ device and causing the MTJ device to be in either a low resistance state or high resistance state. Reading data stored in the memory is accomplished by sensing differences in tunnel junction resistance in the MTJ cells between the two states. Typically, the stored state of a memory cell can be determined by comparing the cell state to that of a reference cell. However, the difference in resistance between a high state and a low state can be very small, requiring a sense amplifier with high sensitivity. Therefore, there is a need for a sense amplifier having improved sensitivity.